Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

What I would like to do is to have my dashes work correctly, so that if an emdash between two words just barely fits on a line, the line will break just after it, but if it just barely does not fit on a line, the line will break just before it. This functionality is just like inserting an optional hyphen, except that I don't want a hyphen to appear before or after the dash.

In MS Word I can do this using insert -> special formatting character -> no-width optional break both before and after the emdash.

Is there a way to do this in OpenOffice Writer?

Thank you.

Take a look at the comments for this issue: http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=74843. Is that what you're after?

Also take a look at this old thread and the linked thread. I am in the habit of using spaces on either side of em-dash and en-dash for this reason, although I know that it is not strictly correct.

Your MS Word character “No width optional break” sounds like the Unicode character U+200B ZERO WIDTH SPACE. I don’t know whether it corresponds exactly as MS Word predates Unicode and sometimes invented characters of their own.

In any case, U+200B can be inserted in OpenOffice.org Writer through CTRL-/. If you have Field Shadings turned on, it will appear as a gray rectangle partially overlapping the preceding character position.

If you have checked Format → Options... → Language Settings → Languages → Enabled for complex text layout (CTL), you will also find it under the Insert → Formatting Mark menu as “No-Width optional break” which looks like an attempt to imitate MS Word terminology.

This may work the same in OpenOffice.org Writer as its MS Word counterpart.